


Failure By Design

by WhatsATerrarium



Series: The Craziest Board Game of 1973 [7]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Angst, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Cutter Himself Is A Warning, Gen, Psychological Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24256477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatsATerrarium/pseuds/WhatsATerrarium
Summary: Written for the prompt "locked in a cage" on my Bad Things Happen Bingo card.Originally posted about a year ago.
Series: The Craziest Board Game of 1973 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732729
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Failure By Design

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously AU post Cutter and Pryce's arrival on the Hephaestus.

When she woke up, her head was throbbing. She straightened up slowly, but she hit her head on something metal above her. She tried to feel around groggily, she pushed her legs forward only to come into contact with something solid. She reached her hands behind her and grasped, finding sets of metal bars. She felt around to all sides, finding the same sturdy sets of bars surrounding her everywhere except above and below her, which was pure metal.

Her heart dropped. She was in a cage, and a very cramped one at that. she could barely straighten her back without bumping her head, and her knees were tucked into her chest due to the severe lack of legroom. Her head was still fuzzy and throbbing as she tried to remember what had happened before she was knocked out.

There was…Dr. Pryce… which meant Hera was either offline or under Pryce’s control. And they had taken her away from the others. She needed to make sure they were okay… And then there was… Bernoulli… Jordan…. and… that smile… that cruel, sickening smile that he looked down on her with as he ordered Bernoulli to knock her over her head. Cutter. He was here.

“Hera?” she rasped out, her throat was dry and her voice showed it. “C-Can you hear me?” No response. She wrapped her arms around herself slowly. Most of her clothes were gone and she was freezing. Her jacket, pants, socks, and shoes had apparently been stripped away because she was left sitting in her boxers and her tank top.

Her head hurt too much to think of a plan and the room was pitch black, so she sat, quietly, waiting. She was sitting for about a ten-minute eternity when she heard a door open and a chipper voice bark “Lights please, Hera!”

“Ye-es… S-Sir,” Hera’s voice came strained from the overhead speakers as the fluorescent lights flicked on.

Minkowski winced, squeezing her eyes shut, then slowly opening them and blinking a few times with her hand shielding her eyes.

Cutter chuckled. “It’s okay, take your time, Renée. Adjust.”

She blinked a few times more before fully opening her eyes. They were on the Sol. That much was obvious, given her unfamiliarity with this room as well as the very evident gravity presence. “Wha….” she started, trailing off, “What do you want?”

“Oh, Renée,” he laughed, sinister smile still plastered across his face, “I just want to chat.”

“Bullshit.”

The fake smile melted away for a minute, and he delivered a swift but powerful kick to the cage in front of him, sending her head crashing right into the side of it. In an instant his grin returned. “Watch it.”

It’s not a good idea to piss Cutter off, that she’s aware of, especially not when you’re half naked in a cage with his goons no doubt in the next room over. So, she takes a deep breath and replies. “What would you like to talk about, sir?”

“Good girl!” He beams approvingly. “Was that so hard?”

“No, sir,” she mutters as he begins to pace around her.

“I wanted to talk about you, Renée!” He hummed giddily.

“Me, sir?”

“Yes, you! More specifically… why you failed.”

“F-Failed?”

“Yes, Renée. You failed. You failed to keep your station from falling apart. Warren and his crew had to intervene. You failed to keep your medical officer alive. And now… well, your communications officer is missing in action and I bet you’ve failed to locate him as well.”

“I…” she should have known this was coming. Whatever lay in store, she knew Cutter would never  _ just  _ physically torture her when he could break her mind as well. She felt a rage bubbling up inside of her.  _ He  _ was the one who sent her up here on a broken station,  _ he  _ was the one who ordered Dr. Hilbert to murder them and who ordered her to murder Hilbert, and when she got herself out of that issue,  _ he  _ was the one who sent the goons that really did kill him!

“You. Failed.” He stopped where he stood, staring down at her. “Right?” He cocked his head, that sinister look flickering in his eyes.

She hesitated. Her back was beginning to ache from being hunched over in this position. “Y-Yes, sir.”

“And what do you have to say for yourself?”

“I’m s-sorry, sir.” She shivered, the coolness of the room starting to bother her more and more. She glanced at him. He looked like he was waiting for more. “I-I’m sorry I failed. I- I’m a failure. I’m sorry.”

“You should be sorry,” he grinned sinisterly. “But sorry isn’t enough.” He looked up. “Hera, drop the temperature in this room to negative ten Fahrenheit, please.”

Hera’s voice came through pained and glitching. “N-N-N-No-o.”

“ _ Unit 214 _ , drop the temperature, please. I won’t ask nicely next time.”

“Y-Y-Yes, sir,” Hera sighed. “I’m s-sorry, C-C-C-  _ Lieutenant _ .”

“It’s okay, Hera.”

Cutter walked out of the room chuckling, he snapped his fingers and the lights went out. She could feel the temperature drop almost instantly. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself, trying to find a comfortable position. Eventually, Minkowski gave in and curled up as she shivered. She knew she could stand this, she’d been freezing before, it was no worse than the time she had to be confined in the cold with Hilbert and Lovelace.

It was the same temperature, nothing she couldn’t take in stride by now.

The minutes passed and her back was aching, her teeth were chattering, and her eyes were watering. “H-Hera? Are you there?” she tried.

Silence.

“Hera, I-I Know you’re under their control… b-but if you can hear me, and if you can  _ f-fight it… _ ”

Nothing.

Of course, nothing. Eiffel was the one who could give the inspirational speeches, he was the one who could get through to Hera and the one who could help everyone get a grip when their lives were in danger.

And she had failed to protect him yet again.

She had ordered him to go out to the escape pod when the explosion had sent him drifting in space for over a hundred days, and Kepler had to save him. She had failed to account for what would happen during the mutiny, and when he wound up in front of Kepler’s gun, Lovelace had to save him. She had been too busy with Jacobi’s ruse to pay attention to him and now God only knew what had become of him.

Goddard was right when they chose her for this team. It was a team designed to fail, and she was a failure by design.

It was a miracle and a hindrance to the crew that she had lasted this long. That she didn’t suffocate when Hilbert locked her out the airlock, that Lovelace had pushed her out of the way of that shrapnel, that she hadn’t been crushed by the gears her leg had caught in, that Kepler hadn’t shot her dead at any point of his reign.

But they were all still stuck with her. An incompetent leader who was only ever supposed to accomplish death on her mission.

Her already watering from the cold eyes began to brim with tears as she could physically feel herself breaking under the slowly decreasing temperature. The room had to be at least down to negative twenty by now. Her death was going to be slow, painful, and frostbitten should Cutter decide to leave her here.

Honestly? She hoped he would. It would most likely be more merciful than anything else he’d consider doing to her. This time Eiffel was gone for good, there was no way the crew would be able take down Pryce and Cutter, and Hera was now rendered entirely under enemy control. It was time to give up. Oh well, she gave it what she had. She closed her eyes and tried to get comfortable. This was going to take a while.

**Author's Note:**

> So a big reason why I don't usually leave comments is that it doesn’t feel like a conversation, it feels too definite. So, as opposed to asking you to leave comments (which I do still very much appreciate and will respond to if that’s your thing), I’m going to let you know how to contact me!
> 
> Instagram: whats_a_terrarium  
> Discord: whats_a_terrarium#0251  
> Tumblr: whats-a-terrarium  
> Twitter: whatsaterrarium
> 
> If you have any thoughts, ideas, constructive criticism, or just want to ramble, never hesitate! :)


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